Snippet #2563516

The air was stale in the tiny, one room cabin. The wood stove in the corner lay dormant as the sun still hung in the sky, not yet hiding from the world, casting it in darkness and the cold of night. The Arizona sun warmed the dusty ground outside and the old, sun baked wood of the cabin that sheltered the two men, once brothers close as any. The cabin smelled of fresh coffee, brewed only moments before the younger brother had arrived. Tell had been waiting for him. He'd grown tired of the game they'd been playing for the past few years. Tired of running, tired of hiding, he was just tired. One way or the other these two men were going to find the end of the road to the journey they'd set on.

Tell's face was clouded in a billowing puff of smoke from his cigar as his eyes, piercing and blue as glacial ice peered through the haze at his brother sitting across the table from him. Tell's fingers of his left hand fiddled with the metal handle of the mug his piping hot coffee was in, fresh steam rising off the drink warning of the heat within. Tell blew out a puff of smoke before he raised the cup to his lips, savoring the warmth of the strong black coffee. He set it back down, his brothers wrathful gaze ever on him. The rage in his eyes, the pain and fury seemed to almost amuse Tell who nearly smirked as he set his drink down and puffed once again on his cigar. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this close to John. To see him now he barely recognized him. He seemed older somehow, grizzled. Like a bear he'd last seen as a cub, now a lumbering male brimming with teeth and savage strength.

The gun between them was their fathers. The Colt, single action Army sat between them. Tell remembered vividly the time his father had slapped him with the barrel of the gun after he'd smart mouthed him. The stinging pain was not something easily forgotten, even after all these years. The fact that John was carrying it now, and brought it here for this was almost poetic.

"Well?..."

Tell said through a cloud of cigar smoke.

"Somethin you want to say, best get on with it."